Honor Bound
by Mining300
Summary: Steven finds himself in a cave without the crystal gems. Without most of his memory and an enemy watching his back, what will happen. With Corrupted Gems at every turn, how will he make it out alive.


Steven's eyes slowly opened. His head buzzed and his vision was getting slightly less fuzzy. He winced as the pain came bolting forwards. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came. His arms, despite his lethargic feeling, shot up to his ears as the loud sound of two figures fighting finally found their way to him. He looked at the two fighting forms, for a second he thought he saw Garnet. No, it wasn't Garnet.

Suddenly, his vision returned to normal and all his senses rushed to the peaks of their ability. "Jasper . . ." He voice was but a whisper: however, Jasper slightly turned her head to him. This momentary distraction allowed the corrupted gem, with arms with swirling colors of green and purple, to tackle the orange gem to the wall.

Jasper grit her teeth and maintained her grip on corrupted beast. Steven didn't know who he was rooting for. Jasper yelled and a helmet appeared over her head. "Deform, fusion." She slammed her helmet into the gem beast, denting it's body inward. It stumbled back and Jasper dashed forward. She slammed her fist into the creature, smashing it into the ground. Her hair flew back wildly as a rush of a white cloud of dust and magic extended past her. The corrupted gem was defeated.

She turned to Steven.

Her calm look scared him half to death.

"Rose."

It was at that point Steven started to panic. "Jasper, uh . . ."

"Why would you protect me?"

"Because you were hurt?"

Jasper deformed her helmet as she walked towards the boy. Steven started taking steps back as she approached. He braced for an attack . . . and then she walked past him. "Come on, Rose!"

Despite his confusion, he rushed after her. He slowly started coming to an understanding as his memory reruned. He had protected Jasper. Putting a shield in between her and the corrupted gem when she was unconscious. Or so he thought. She must have been awake, especially when she sprung to action, almost entering the battle before Steven got hit by the corrupted gem.

"I'm not Rose."

""Then who—what—are you?"

It was a simple question, but he was afraid she wouldn't understand. "I'm her child. It's kind of a human thing."

She didn't respond, most likely processing the new information. They entered a large room with a warp pad in the center. "Warp pad!" Steven rushed over to it and his eyes widened. Disappointment seeped from his voice. "Oh . . . it's broken."

"Figures. Come, Quartz Child."

Steven looked around the room, seeing several pathways. "Which way?"

Jasper looked at him than at the several tunnels. "You pick and then explain your reasoning more."

Steven nodded and randomly picked a tunnel. "This one." Jasper went ahead of him, crouching to fit, and walked forward. Steven followed. "So . . . explain what?"

"Why you protected me."

"You were hurt and no one deserves to feel pain. Besides you could have died." Jasper just grunted. "Why did you protect me, Jasper?"

"I was repaying your efforts."

"Oh. So, uh, any reason we're sticking together?"

"All I care about is getting out of here. And, even if you're not Rose Quarz, you're still powerful enough to summon a weapon." She reached the end of the tunnel and stood to her full height.

Steven followed her and looked up. "Oh no."

There was a wall of rock, similar to the rock climb he had seen at amusement parks. They started the climb. Steven was not very fond of the short climb, almost falling several times before they reached the top. "Jasper?"

Jasper, as a response, grunted.

"Are you okay?"

Jasper turned her head slightly as the two walked. Uncharastically for a Gem, she had bags under her eyes and one of her eyes were faded. "What's it to you?" There was one other thing that Steven noticed, making him stand rigid in his step. Jasper stopped fully, turning towards Steven. "What?" Her eye twitched. Why was he just staring at her?

"Oh no . . ."

"WHAT?! WHAT ARE—" Jasper's voice cut off, pain shooting through her throat. It only lasted a second, but it was enough to put Jasper on edge. "What just—"

"Your gem." If Jasper had blood it would have run cold. "It's cracked."


End file.
